McDowell County, West Virginia
McDowell County is a county in West Virginia. The population of the county is 22,113. Major roads US Route 52 West Virginia Route 16 West Virginia Route 80 West Virginia Route 83 West Virginia Route 103 West Virginia Route 161 West Virginia Route 635 Geography Adjacent counties Mercer County (east) Wyoming County (north) Mingo County (northwest) Tazewell County, Virginia (south) Buchanan County, Virginia (west) Demographics As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the county is: 88.77% White (19,629) 9.71% Black or African American (2,147) 1.52% Other (337) 31.1% (6,877) of McDowell County residents live below the poverty line. Theft rate statistics Once upon a time, Team Rocket was rather active in this part of the country, but those days are long gone. Nowadays, the problem is Team Galactic. The county reported 5 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 0.90 murders a year. Pokemon Communities Cities Gary - 968 Keystone - 282 War - 862 Welch - 2,406 Towns Anawalt - 226 Bradshaw - 337 Davy - 420 Iaeger - 302 Kimball - 194 Northfork - 429 CDPs Bartley - 224 Berwind - 278 Big Sandy - 168 Crumpler - 204 Cucumber - 94 Maybeury - 234 Pageton - 187 Raysal - 465 Roderfield - 188 Vivian - 82 Unincorporated communities Algoma Alpheus Antler Apple Grove Asco Ashland Atwell Avondale Beartown Big Four Bishop Black Wolf Bottom Creek Brewsterdale Canebrake Capels Caretta Carlos Carswell Cherokee Clark Clear Fork Junction Coalwood Dan Eckman Eight Elkhorn English Ennis Erin Faraday Garland Gilliam Havaco Hemphill Hensley Hull Isaban (partly in Mingo County) Jackson Flats Jacobs Fork Jed Jenkinjones Johnnycake Jolo Krollitz Kyle Landgraff Leckie Lex Lila Litwar Longpole Maitland Marine Marytown McDowell Mohawk Mohegan Monson Newhall Panther Paynesville Peapatch (partly in Buchanan County, Virginia) Powhatan Premier Ream Rift Rockridge Rolfe Sandy Huff Six Skygusty Squire Superior Switchback Twin Branch Union City Upland Vallscreek Venus Warriormine Wilmore Worth Wyoming City Yerba Yukon Ghost towns Hix Climate Fun facts * Keystone, Kimball and Northfork are the remaining three incorporated towns in West Virginia with a majority black population. * Kimball is the site of the first war memorial building erected in memory of the African-American veterans of World War I. * The only Walmart in McDowell County was located near Kimball, however, it closed in 2015. * War is the only place in the United States with this name, however, it was formerly known as Miner's City. * War is also known for being a setting in the movie October Sky; as writer Homer Hickam's Big Creek High School. * Larry Scott Deaner wrote about the historical geography of the African-American population of Keystone in his 2004 Master's thesis. Deaner calls Keystone the cultural capital of the "Free State of McDowell" - a term coined by Matthew Thomas Whittico, a local newspaper editor and community leader from Keystone in the early 20th century. Keystone possessed a unique combination of political, social, and economic characteristics that made it an attractive place for African-Americans to migrate to in the late 1800s and early 1900s. * McDowell County, while still a part of Virginia, voted in favor of secession from the United States. It, along with Greenbrier, Logan, Mercer, Monroe, Pocahontas, Webster, and Wyoming; did not participate in voting for the secession of West Virginia from Virginia. These 8 counties would be discussed in the Supreme Court case Virginia v. West Virginia. * McDowell County's population peaked at 98,887 in 1950. Over the last 70 years, there have been very few counties that have fallen as hard as McDowell County has. * Politically, from 1936 to 2010, McDowell was one of the most powerfully rural Democrat voting counties in the United States. From 2012 on, however, it has turned sharply Republican. * In 2015, McDowell County had the highest rate of drug-induced deaths of any county in the United States, with 141 deaths per 100,000 people. (The rate for the United States as a whole was 14.7 per 100,000 people.) Neighboring Wyoming County had the second highest rate. * Increasing rates of poverty in McDowell County led U.S. President John F. Kennedy to remark in a speech in the city of Welch in May 1963: "I don't think any American can be satisfied to find in McDowell County, in West Virginia, 20 or 25 percent of the people of that county out of work, not for 6 weeks or 12 weeks, but for a year, 2, 3, or 4 years." * The county is popularly referred to as the "Free State of McDowell," a name originally coined by a local newspaper editor to refer to the unusual politics and demographics of the area. Category:West Virginia Counties